Machines which are designed to plant seeds in soil which has not been tilled to incorporate crop residue from the previous season require the use of some kind of residue cutting apparatus coupled in leading relationship to the trench-forming and seed-depositing mechanism to enable the mechanism to perform properly. Whereas the trench-forming and seed-depositing means are typically located back under the frames and seed boxes of the units and, thus, present no particular interference problems during forward folding of separate sections of the machine for transport purposes, the residue severing apparatus projects sufficiently far forwardly and hangs down low enough in such forwardly disposed position as to present clearance problems with other portions of the machine when trying to maintain a narrow transport width by folding the machine forwardly.